Building new social contracts: a critical review of ideas and actions to fulfill African aspirations through education

Sweta C. Saxena; Giuseppe Tesoriere; Syed T. Ahmed; Wafa Aidi; Sweta C. Saxena; Giuseppe Tesoriere; Syed T. Ahmed; Wafa Aidi

doi:10.3934/NAR.2025004

National Accounting Review

2025, Volume 7, Issue 1: 85-105. doi: 10.3934/NAR.2025004

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Research article

Building new social contracts: a critical review of ideas and actions to fulfill African aspirations through education

Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Received: 24 October 2024 Revised: 24 December 2024 Accepted: 22 January 2025 Published: 07 February 2025
JEL Codes: A2, H52, I14, I25, J18

This article proposes a theoretical framework for constructing a new social contract through education based on three levers—affordability, accessibility, and applicability—focusing on Africa. The article argues that if governments make education more affordable, accessible, and applicable, they can ensure a virtuous cycle of trust between the government and people, resulting in policies that deliver equal opportunities, create intergenerational mobility, and reduce poverty. The contribution of the framework lies in providing a foundation for new public policy research on the interaction between sector development (like education) and social contract building. The framework is designed to be sufficiently general to systematically investigate broad trends in public policies and sufficiently flexible to accommodate specific micro-contexts in developing countries.
- education,
- development economics,
- gender,
- public policy
Citation: Sweta C. Saxena, Giuseppe Tesoriere, Syed T. Ahmed, Wafa Aidi. Building new social contracts: a critical review of ideas and actions to fulfill African aspirations through education[J]. National Accounting Review, 2025, 7(1): 85-105. doi: 10.3934/NAR.2025004

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Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical framework for constructing a new social contract through education based on three levers—affordability, accessibility, and applicability—focusing on Africa. The article argues that if governments make education more affordable, accessible, and applicable, they can ensure a virtuous cycle of trust between the government and people, resulting in policies that deliver equal opportunities, create intergenerational mobility, and reduce poverty. The contribution of the framework lies in providing a foundation for new public policy research on the interaction between sector development (like education) and social contract building. The framework is designed to be sufficiently general to systematically investigate broad trends in public policies and sufficiently flexible to accommodate specific micro-contexts in developing countries.

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